U.S., world offer aid to tsunami victims

MIKE ALLENThe Washington Post

Published Monday, December 27, 2004

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials held a conference call Sunday to discuss ways to aid the south Asian countries inundated by the Indian Ocean tsunami. A White House statement said aid had already been sent to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

International organizations began flying humanitarian teams in from Europe despite the holiday weekend, and the British-based poverty relief group Oxfam warned that many more people could die without a rapid response.

"The floodwaters will have contaminated drinking water, and food will be scarce," Jasmine Whitbread, the group's international director, said in a statement.

Pope John Paul II, during his Sunday noon appearance from his window overlooking St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, appealed to the international community to send relief to the stricken nations.

The International Red Cross in Geneva launched a six-month campaign for donations of cash, goods or services totaling $6.7 million. The U.S. fund for UNICEF estimated that one-third of the reported dead are children.

The Web site of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides humanitarian assistance abroad, advised that the "most efficient and effective way to help those affected by a disaster overseas is to make a monetary donation to a humanitarian organization that is implementing relief programs in the affected region."

President Bush flew Sunday to his ranch in Texas for a weeklong vacation. A written statement from the White House Press Office said that on behalf of the American people, he "expresses his sincere condolences for the terrible loss of life and suffering caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in the region of the Bay of Bengal."

"The United States stands ready to offer all appropriate assistance to those nations most affected including Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as the other countries impacted," the statement said. "Already relief is flowing to Sri Lanka and the Maldives."

Noel Clay, a State Department press officer, said that the government was "looking at ways we can help in the process."